A fine blue and white 'Flowers' dish. Ming Dynasty, Yongle period

the shallow lobed sides rising from a small tapered foot to an everted rim barbed with twelve bracket-lobes, painted in deep cobalt blue with intense 'heaping and piling', the slightly recessed foliate centre decorated with six large blooms wreathed by scrolling foliage including lotus, chrysanthemum, mallow, camellia and possibly carnation surrounding a central lotus, the lobed cavetto further decorated with twelve composite floral scrolls positioned in pairs across the dish except for a lotus placed opposite a peony, under a band of crested waves at the rim, the exterior similarly painted with a variety of finely detailed floral sprays between a double line encircling the foot and two fillets outlining the rim, the recessed base left unglazed; 33.6 cm., 13 1/4 in. Estimate 5,000,000-7,000,000 HKD. Unsold

PROVENANCE: An old Japanese collection.

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: Two dishes of this design are in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Chinese Ceramics from the Axel and Nora Lundgren Bequest, Stockholm, 1978, pl. 27, no. 25, and in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 216, from the Swedish Royal Collection. See also a similar dish in the Percival David Foundation, London, included in op. cit., vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 76; another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of Early Ming Porcelains, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, cat. no. 38; and one from the collection of the Ottoman Sultans published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. 2, London, 1986, pl. 601. A comparable example sold in our Paris rooms, 12th June 2008, lot 332.